tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post773611833557107914..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Keep calm and carry on writing? I wish. by Jo CarrollKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-16136212633610529092017-06-28T08:57:53.991+01:002017-06-28T08:57:53.991+01:00Many thanks for this - and I take your point. My p...Many thanks for this - and I take your point. My parents, too, were in the war - but rarely talked about the frightening bits. And I agree that we hear about things differently now, with our 24-hour news broadcasts. The reporters have a role to play in whipping it all up (the 'most serious political situation in our lifetime stuff - but I remember 1974).<br /><br />And I agree that one of our roles is to entertain - never to be underestimated. It's just that I'm finding it difficult put images of Grenfell Tower (to take one example) to one side when I sit down at my laptop.JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-44162961698779787892017-06-27T19:45:29.646+01:002017-06-27T19:45:29.646+01:00Thought-provoking stuff. I don't have an answ...Thought-provoking stuff. I don't have an answer, except to say that the problem isn't that the world is getting worse but that we get to know all about every terrible event in a way that didn't happen before. 24 hour news coverage, social media, film clips... We need to work on our self-defence and keep things in proportion. <br /> Recently I spoke at a conference on children's literature, and exactly that question came up: what are the responsibilities of a children's writer in these uncertain times? My view - I hope not too frivolous - is that our responsibility is the same as it has always been i.e. to entertain (but with a hero making moral choices the entertainment will always include depth and complexity). Moreover, the world around us is overall in a better state than it has ever been, with diseases that used to cause millions of deaths now eliminated/controlled, communities moving out of poverty etc - it's just that it doesn't feel like that because of all the terrifying news. <br /> My mother grew up during the Blitz with a 6 year possibility that the UK would be invaded - how scary must that have been? Not as bad as for the countries that were invaded and suffered terribly in WW2. My fellow panellists remembered the cold war and the shadow of the atom bomb and fearing the world would be annihilated before they reached adulthood. A few years ago someone asked me seriously if I didn't think the world now was at a worse state than it has ever been - and I replied no, not when you consider the 10 million who died in WW2, the 6 million holocaust, the 80 (?) million who died in Russia under Stalin etc etc. <br /> It may sound coldhearted but it isn't meant to be... just trying to remember the good things among the bad. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com